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Sunday, September 21, 2014

Vatican City, 21 September 2014 (VIS) –
Thousands of faithful participated in the Holy Mass celebrated by
Pope Francis in Latin and Albanian at 11 a.m. in Mother Teresa
Square. The liturgical readings reflected aspects of Albania's
history. The first, from the Book of Exodus, told how “I bore you
on eagle's wings”, whereas the epistle was St. Paul's letter to the
Romans in which the apostle tells how he preached in Illyria, which
at that time included the current territory of Albania.

However, in his homily the Holy Father
commented on the passage from the Gospel of St. Luke, which includes
the phrase “Peace be to this house” and which narrates how Jesus,
after naming the twelve apostles, convokes another seventy-two
disciples and sends them to proclaim the Kingdom of God to peoples
and cities.

“He comes to bring the love of God to
the world and he wishes to share it by means of communion and
fraternity”, said Pope Francis. “To this end he immediately forms
a community of disciples, a missionary community, and he trains them
how to 'go out' on mission. The method is both clear and simple: the
disciples visit homes and their preaching begins with a greeting
which is charged with meaning: 'Peace be to this house!'. It is not
only a greeting, but also a gift: the gift of peace. Being here with
you today, dear brothers and sisters of Albania, in this square
dedicated to a humble and great daughter of this land, Blessed Mother
Teresa of Calcutta, I wish to repeat to you this greeting: May peace
be in your homes. May peace reign in your hearts. Peace in your
country. Peace”.

“In the mission of the seventy-two
disciples we see a reflection of the Christian community’s
missionary experience in every age: the risen and living Lord sends
not only the Twelve, but the entire Church; he sends each of the
baptised to announce the Gospel to all peoples. Through the ages, the
message of peace brought by Jesus’ messengers has not always been
accepted; at times, the doors have been closed to them. In the recent
past, the doors of your country were also closed, locked by the
chains of prohibitions and prescriptions of a system which denied God
and impeded religious freedom. Those who were afraid of the truth did
everything they could to banish God from the hearts of men and women
and to exclude Christ and the Church from the history of your
country, even though it was one of the first to receive the light of
the Gospel”.

Pope Francis went on to recall the
“decades of atrocious suffering and harsh persecutions against
Catholics, Orthodox and Muslims”, affirming that “Albania was a
land of martyrs: many bishops, priests, men and women religious, lay
faithful, and ministers of worship of other religions paid for their
fidelity with their lives. Demonstrations of great courage and
constancy in the profession of the faith are not lacking. How many
Christians did not succumb when threatened, but persevered without
wavering on the path they had undertaken! I stand spiritually at that
wall of the cemetery of Scutari, a symbolic place of the martyrdom of
Catholics before the firing squads, and with profound emotion I place
the flower of my prayer and of my grateful and undying remembrance.
The Lord was close to you, dear brothers and sisters, to sustain you;
he led you and consoled you and in the end he has raised you up on
eagle’s wings as he did for the ancient people of Israel. The
eagle, depicted on your nation’s flag, calls to mind hope, and the
need to always place your trust in God, who does not lead us astray
and who is ever at our side, especially in moments of difficulty.

“The doors of Albania have now been
reopened and a season of new missionary vitality is growing for all
of the members of the people of God: each baptised person has his or
her role to fulfil in the Church and in society. Each one must
experience the call to dedicate themselves generously to the
announcing of the Gospel and to the witness of charity; called to
strengthen the bonds of solidarity so as to create more just and
fraternal living conditions for all”.

Today, the Pontiff exclaimed, “I have
come to give thanks to you for your witness and to encourage you to
cultivate hope among yourselves and within your hearts. Do not forget
the eagle. The eagle does not forget the nest, but flies high. It
flies high! I have come to encourage you to involve the young
generations; to nourish yourselves assiduously on the Word of God,
opening your hearts to Christ: to the Gospel, to the encounter with
God and the encounter among you, which is already taking place.
Through this encounter of yours, you offer an example to all Europe”.

“To the living Church in this land of
Albania, I say 'thank you' for your example of fidelity”, he
concluded. “Do not forget the nest, your distant history; do not
forget the wounds inflicted, but do not seek to avenge them. Go
ahead, working with hope for a great future. So many of your sons and
daughters have suffered for Christ, even to the point of sacrificing
their lives. May their witness sustain your steps today and tomorrow
as you journey along the path of love, the path of freedom, and above
all, the path of justice and of peace”.